Review: From a Low and Quiet Sea by Donal Ryan

Donal Ryan seeks to impress us the need for kindness and compassionANTHONY WOODS

★★★★☆Whether it’s the village outcast, the Traveller community or those hit hardest by the recession, Donal Ryan has always sought to write compassionately about those pushed to the fringes of society.

In his fifth work of fiction he ruminates ever more on the nature of empathy. From a Low and Quiet Sea is full of lost characters torn apart by situations beyond their control, their torment inflicted on them by others. Ryan’s novel starts in Syria and moves to Tipperary and Limerick as it draws together three seemingly disconnected narratives.

Farouk is a Syrian doctor who has risked everything to get his family out of his war-torn country. Lampy is a heartbroken young man living at home. John is tormented by a life marked by…

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